Harmony O.T.S. going into MAJOR "Rebuild"?

[DHADEN]

Has anyone else heard about Harmony going into a major (3-weeks) dry-dock?   Our April 18th of 2021 cruise was canceled plus all the others in April of 2021, for this. 

I can't imagine why, all of a sudden, they would cancel cruises for this with it being almost 2 years out.

[island lady]

12 minutes ago, DHADEN said:

Has anyone else heard about Harmony going into a major (3-weeks) dry-dock?   Our April 18th of 2021 cruise was canceled plus all the others in April of 2021, for this. 

I can't imagine why, all of a sudden, they would cancel cruises for this with it being almost 2 years out.

 

I would rather they cancel one of my cruises at 2 years out...versus a year out or less.  Many would have problems with rebooking flights, scheduling vacation time...etc.  if it were less than two years.   Two years notice seems fair to me.  

Edited July 2, 2019 by island lady

[CruisingJoe09]

13 minutes ago, DHADEN said:

Has anyone else heard about Harmony going into a major (3-weeks) dry-dock?   Our April 18th of 2021 cruise was canceled plus all the others in April of 2021, for this. 

I can't imagine why, all of a sudden, they would cancel cruises for this with it being almost 2 years out.

The ship is getting it's 5 year drydock. Probably minimal refurbishments but will need a trip to Europe.

Edited July 2, 2019 by CruisingJoe09

[DHADEN]

25 minutes ago, island lady said:

I would rather they cancel one of my cruises at 2 years out...versus a year out or less.  Many would have problems with rebooking flights, scheduling vacation time...etc.  if it were less than two years.   Two years notice seems fair to me.  

 

25 minutes ago, CruisingJoe09 said:

The ship is getting it's 5 year drydock. Probably minimal refurbishments but will need a trip to Europe.

 

I agree with your statements, but wouldn't you question the Business Planning of RCI?  It does NOT build any confidence in the Company who Publishes the Itineraries,  Books the cabins, and THEN, (four months later) decides:  "Oh, DUH......  we should put the ship in for Dry-Dock!" 

Then they have to Screw Up eveyones plans, pay evryone $200 to $500 additional onboard credit, and Start Over.

AND....

It's Two Years Out - so it's not like there is an EMERGENCY or anything.  There are no May Itneraries out yet, so why wouldn't they just wait until May 2021 to do the Dry-Dock?

Edited July 2, 2019 by DHADEN

[AshleyDillo]

15 minutes ago, DHADEN said:

It's Two Years Out - so it's not like there is an EMERGENCY or anything.  There are no May Itneraries out yet, so why wouldn't they just wait until May 2021 to do the Dry-Dock?

 

It's most likely scheduling of the drydock facility which they don't have control over.  The question is that they knew her 5-year drydock would be spring 2021..why did they release the itineraries before securing the drydock?

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

 

It's most likely scheduling of the drydock facility which they don't have control over.  The question is that they knew her 5-year drydock would be spring 2021..why did they release the itineraries before securing the drydock?

 

Easy money?

[island lady]

Not the first time cruises have been rescheduled for some reason.  Other reasons can be the ship is booked up on a charter...which can happen quite suddenly.  That's $$ talking there.  Then there are totally unexpected cancellations for maintenance.   

 

You just hope your cruise is not canceled at true last minute.  

 

Plus as Bob said...it's the money, and of course..."RCI"   (Really Consistently Inconsistent)  😉 

 

 

[Capt_BJ]

may be related to the loss of one of the only dd facilities that was able to handle OASIS class.  When OASIS had that issue in Freeport it was a failure of the floating dock that caused the incident and I don't check regularly but each time I HAVE checked that dock has been empty since then .... initial reports were that the dock was toast but I suppose they WILL fix it eventually.

 

Guessing H was gonna go to Freeport, this would mean a new facility had to be found for H' and all sorts of other vessels which were planning to use this dock are rescheduling too.  {good time to own a BIG dry dock facility $$$$}

 

and for the record a pass' ship which wants to board pass' in a US port needs to have two dry dockings in the previous 5 years - sliding scale.  new construction gets an initial waiver b4 the rule kicks in but once past that, the rule applies.  The drydocking is to perform inspections of underwater hull opening and valves.  Since the ship is 'off line' for this legally required work, it is a good time for all sorts of other things to be done as well. (simplification of course but the major points apply)

Edited July 2, 2019 by Capt_BJ

[CruisingJoe09]

46 minutes ago, DHADEN said:

 

 

I agree with your statements, but wouldn't you question the Business Planning of RCI?  It does NOT build any confidence in the Company who Publishes the Itineraries,  Books the cabins, and THEN, (four months later) decides:  "Oh, DUH......  we should put the ship in for Dry-Dock!" 

Then they have to Screw Up eveyones plans, pay evryone $200 to $500 additional onboard credit, and Start Over.

AND....

It's Two Years Out - so it's not like there is an EMERGENCY or anything.  There are no May Itneraries out yet, so why wouldn't they just wait until May 2021 to do the Dry-Dock?

As I've said, they have to travel to Europe which takes over a week. Royal also has to book a place in Cadiz shipyard, and that may have been the available time for a ship of HM's size.

 

This has happened countless times before - Allure got 2 months of Spring 2020 cruises cancelled.

[Milwaukee Eight]

Isn’t it likely the Bahamas drydock failure has really mucked up all plans for local drydocks?

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

 

It's most likely scheduling of the drydock facility which they don't have control over.  The question is that they knew her 5-year drydock would be spring 2021..why did they release the itineraries before securing the drydock?

Unfortunately like you said Dry Dock dates for ship this size is limited where and when they can get in. In past like 2+ yrs ago dates for May2020- Spring 2021 would have just came out in Apr-June. Now they publish many Cruise dates like for Harmony's 2yrs out like other lines things like this more likely to happen. And with Dry Dock issues in Bahama's just adds to it for other ships...

Edited July 2, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Isn’t it likely the Bahamas drydock failure has really mucked up all plans for local drydocks?

 

Certainly has not helped, but the Oasis class ships could never come totally out of the water at the Freeport facility.  They have to go to Europe for the full dry dock.

[Milwaukee Eight]

12 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Certainly has not helped, but the Oasis class ships could never come totally out of the water at the Freeport facility.  They have to go to Europe for the full dry dock.

Is a full out of water drydock required for ships only 5 yo?  I don’t know the answer. 

[Clarea]

9 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Is a full out of water drydock required for ships only 5 yo?  I don’t know the answer. 

 

I believe so.  There are inspection requirements that have to be fufilled.  The Chief can elaborate.

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, DHADEN said:

 

I agree with your statements, but wouldn't you question the Business Planning of RCI?  It does NOT build any confidence in the Company who Publishes the Itineraries,  Books the cabins, and THEN, (four months later) decides:  "Oh, DUH......  we should put the ship in for Dry-Dock!" 

  There are no May Itneraries out yet, so why wouldn't they just wait until May 2021 to do the Dry-Dock?

Yes they knew a dry dock was due, but the size and scope of the dry dock may not have been known - details of the the refurb probably came later (just now details are coming out for Oasis, only a few months out from dry dock). They don't have much leeway on the date of the dry dock. Also, as @Thorben-Hendrik likes to point out, penalties for European sailing cancellations could be much higher than US ones, so they wanted to pad the dry dock time to ensure no Euro sailings get cancelled due to schedule slippage.

[Ourusualbeach]

They do not do 5 year dry docks for Oasis class in Freeport so the incident there has nothing to do with this.  For the 5 year drydock the ship needs to be completely out of the water with the work that they do on it.  

 

This exact act same thing happened with both Oasis  and Allure and I’ll bet money that it happens with the Symphony in 2023.  Royal releases all the itineraries until the end of April but if the ship is going to Europe leaving at the end of April and then doing the drydock means losing out on a larger portion of the peak summer season.  Better to cancel the lower priced April Caribbean sailings and get her over early so she can sail the full summer season in the med.

 

You would have thought that the geniuses at Royal would have figured this out by now and only release her sailings until the end of March since many of us predicted that this would happen long ago. 

[molly361]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

They do not do 5 year dry docks for Oasis class in Freeport so the incident there has nothing to do with this.  For the 5 year drydock the ship needs to be completely out of the water with the work that they do on it.  

 

This exact act same thing happened with both Oasis  and Allure and I’ll bet money that it happens with the Symphony in 2023.  Royal releases all the itineraries until the end of April but if the ship is going to Europe leaving at the end of April and then doing the drydock means losing out on a larger portion of the peak summer season.  Better to cancel the lower priced April Caribbean sailings and get her over early so she can sail the full summer season in the med.

 

You would have thought that the geniuses at Royal would have figured this out by now and only release her sailings until the end of March since many of us predicted that this would happen long ago. 

I'll take that bet😇

[uksimonusa]

2 hours ago, Capt_BJ said:

may be related to the loss of one of the only dd facilities that was able to handle OASIS class.  When OASIS had that issue in Freeport it was a failure of the floating dock that caused the incident and I don't check regularly but each time I HAVE checked that dock has been empty since then .... initial reports were that the dock was toast but I suppose they WILL fix it eventually.

 

Guessing H was gonna go to Freeport, this would mean a new facility had to be found for H' and all sorts of other vessels which were planning to use this dock are rescheduling too.  {good time to own a BIG dry dock facility $$$$}

 

and for the record a pass' ship which wants to board pass' in a US port needs to have two dry dockings in the previous 5 years - sliding scale.  new construction gets an initial waiver b4 the rule kicks in but once past that, the rule applies.  The drydocking is to perform inspections of underwater hull opening and valves.  Since the ship is 'off line' for this legally required work, it is a good time for all sorts of other things to be done as well. (simplification of course but the major points apply)

Did you see that Carnival is bringing a floating dry dock to the Bahamas so the Vista can get her azipods fixed?  

 

[molole]

Is there a place I can check for dry dock and "amp" schedule for all Royal Ships?  

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, molole said:

Is there a place I can check for dry dock and "amp" schedule for all Royal Ships?  

Royal does not release that.  They have a general guide for the amped program  that shows what year and ship.

 

http://www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com/content/uploads/2018-2019-Fleet_Guide.pdf

Edited July 2, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[hallux]

15 minutes ago, uksimonusa said:

Did you see that Carnival is bringing a floating dry dock to the Bahamas so the Vista can get her azipods fixed?

While the video says "unique floating dry dock", that's only true in that it will lift the ship out of the water to service parts that can't be serviced below water.  That vessel is a heavy-lift transport that is capable of lifting Vista.  It's not set up for the kind of work needed on a 5-year dry dock.  Carnival is using it because there is no other option and Vista NEEDS repairs.  You can bet that vessel will not be cheap, and I'm sure it's booked for other jobs.

 

If the animation is accurate, the Azipods will be hanging off the back of the lift vessel and they'll need some kind of platform below them to perform the required work.

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, molly361 said:

I'll take that bet😇

 

Allure cancelled March. We leave for Europe on March 1 🥶🥶

[island lady]

9 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Allure cancelled March. We leave for Europe on March 1 🥶🥶

 

Oh no...not again!!  😮  You sure have your bad luck on cancellations.  😞 

 

My friends/neighbors were some of the pax that had their TA cancelled last minute to Europe this last spring on Oasis.  

 

[Milwaukee Eight]

9 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Allure cancelled March. We leave for Europe on March 1 🥶🥶

Ouch...  and that was Star Class. 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Milwaukee Eight

[LMaxwell]

18 hours ago, DHADEN said:

 

 

I agree with your statements, but wouldn't you question the Business Planning of RCI?  It does NOT build any confidence in the Company who Publishes the Itineraries,  Books the cabins, and THEN, (four months later) decides:  "Oh, DUH......  we should put the ship in for Dry-Dock!" 

Then they have to Screw Up eveyones plans, pay evryone $200 to $500 additional onboard credit, and Start Over.

AND....

It's Two Years Out - so it's not like there is an EMERGENCY or anything.  There are no May Itneraries out yet, so why wouldn't they just wait until May 2021 to do the Dry-Dock?

 

They can only bring those ships to certain places, and they can only do it when they have scheduled availability.  I don't think 20+ months out is any cause for concern on your end or any logical reason to say it does not build confidence.  This is about as ample as notice gets.  And for April they can probably run a transatlantic to get there and then have the ship ready for the busy end of May - September season.  

 

Your trip is almost 2 years out; has anything been spent that can not be reimbursed at this point?  There is plenty of time to make alternate plans.  

 

There is being disappointed, which I can understand, but there is also realizing you aren't in any hardship due to this.